This month, DisneyChannel.com lets users celebrate Halloween early with its “October Takeover” initiative, an augmented reality experience that gives kids the chance to be a virtual character from eight popular Disney Channel series.

A multiplatform digital and programming event, Disney Channel’s October Takeover starts online at www.DisneyChannel.com/Halloween where kids, with their parents’ permission, can digitally recreate themselves in virtual Halloween costumes representing some of their favorite Disney Channel characters such as “Hannah Montana,” Agent P from “Phineas and Ferb” and Sicky Vicky from “Sonny With A Chance,” among others. Trying on a costume is as easy as sitting in front of a webcam or uploading a photo. The Halloween-themed site instantly adds a costume over the image and allows webcam users to create a 15-second video. Participants have the opportunity to have their videos and photos featured on Disney Channel’s site or on-air throughout the month of October.

The Disneyland Hotel was built, owned and operated by Walt Disney’s friend Jack Wrather in 1955, opening just about five months after the Disneyland Park. In 1961, the Disneyland Monorail was expanded to allow transportation between the park and the hotel’s guests, making it the first monorail to cross over a public street. It wasn’t until 1988 that the Disneyland Resort acquired the hotel from The Wrather Corporation.

Earlier today, cast members from the Disneyland Hotel celebrated its 55th birthday in style, by slicing into this cake inspired by the Disneyland Hotel itself and one of its towers, prepared by the Resort’s central bakery.

The Advertising Council, in collaboration with the USDA Forest Service, the National Association of State Foresters (NASF) and Disney, announced today the launch of a new series of public service advertisements (PSAs) designed to raise awareness about wildfire prevention.

The new PSAs feature characters and scenes from Disney’s Bambi and communicate Smokey Bear’s enduring message, “Only You Can Prevent Wildfires.” Bambi starred in the first Wildfire Prevention PSA in 1944, prior to Smokey Bear’s debut in the campaign later that year. The new ads are being distributed to media outlets nationwide to coincide with Fire Prevention Week (October 3-9).

This past weekend, the 48th Annual New York Film Festival honored director’s Julie Taymore’s spin on the Shakespeare classic by making The Tempest the Centerpiece of the festival. The first of the two screenings on Saturday night also managed to double as the North American premiere of the film. I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the second screening, introduced by Julie Taymor. Noting The Tempest was celebrating its 400th anniversary, Taymor reflected on her experiences with the Shakespearean play dating back to directing a staged version of the play some time ago. Despite the material’s origins and mostly native British cast, she also quipped it was an American film as it had been filmed on the Hawaiian island of Lana’i, a place she had once vacationed at and decided then and there ‘it was The Tempest.’ It’s also worth noting that portions of the film were also filmed in New York soundstages in addition to Hawaii.

I was invited to a press event late this afternoon in New York City at which Walt Disney Studios screened Tangled in its semi-current unfinished format as well as a 20+ minute compilation of various scenes from TRON: Legacy, not unlike those recently held in Burbank. The event was hosted by Studios production head Sean Bailey who opened the presentation by presenting a 30 second tv spot for Secretariat, reminding us all that the movie opens on Friday.

ABC Family and Starz Media will once again celebrate the holidays together this season, with the network buying the U.S. cable TV rights to the new live-action holiday movie, “The Dog Who Saved Christmas Vacation,” as part of its November “Countdown to 25 Days of Christmas” programming event. A Starz Media presentation, the two-hour original movie, a sequel to last year’s “The Dog Who Saved Christmas,” makes its worldwide premiere on ABC Family on Sunday, November 28 at 8:00 PM ET/PT. Jeffrey Schenck and Barry Barnholtz are executive producers on the film, which was written by Michael Ciminera, Richard Gnolfo and Peter Sullivan, from a story by Schenck, Sullivan, Ciminera and Gnolfo. Michael Feifer directed the movie.

Disney Living, the official YouTube channel of Disney Consumer Products, has announced a new YouTube video contest in which the winners will each receive a $100 gift card good at any Disney Store or DisneyStore.com.

To enter the ‘Happy Halloween from Disney Living Contest,’ create a video up to two minutes in length and submit it as a video response to one of the three new videos from Disney Living spoofing iconic moments from classic horror films, such as this one for The Shining:

In an upcoming episode of Disney Channel’s ‘Sonny With A Chance,’ Shaquille O’Neal guest stars as himself, in a fully-produced, ghoulish “So Random!” Halloween special, along with special musical guests Allstar Weekend and a brand new song performed by Sonny Munroe.

You may have already seen the promotional clips of the episode which feature Shaq as ‘Shaqula,’ but you haven’t seen anything until you’ve met ‘Shakenzie’ who’s introduced to us in the following clip from the show shared with us by Disney Channel. Also featured in the clip are regular cast members Demi Lovato, Sterling Knight, Tiffany Thornton, Doug Brochu and Brandon Mychal Smith.